Welcome to answer corner, yay. [th_0suit.gif]
1. Wait and see on the gender bender. No more spoilers on that front :p
2. Bring on the goblins, I've got (insert spoiler here) galore. Ku ku. Well, Valgrim wasn't originally gonna have a "harem" like is tradition, but because the only who comment so far seem to want, I'll modify my plans a little bit. He's still not the main harem guy though, hue hue hue.
3. I'm thinking about putting together a short story for the contest, one that tells the story on how Brutus and Valgrim met, plz leave me your opinion on making it a side story, or having in further in the plot.
4. Celebrations, 21 followers and 5 favorites :blush:
Now, resume the story- pre-battle mode
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Resuming Valgrim point of view meta:
Valgrim listened as Brutus gave a brief description of their findings. He nodded as Brutus explained the hole in the lake. Looking thoughtful, Valgrim gazed at the lake . He looked at Saharra, who was trying to rub as much kelp on her face, and sighed again. The amount of sighs he had given already this trip probably equaled a lifetime of lost happiness.
Resolving himself, Valgrim announced loudly, "Dear clients, I have some important news. Please gather around." Everyone gathered around the stone he was standing on. Saharra's face was covered in kelp, her eyes peaking from a forest of green. Girr's fur was shinning from the high maintenance, and Scald clothes glowed with arcane energy.
'They are not going to be happy..' he thought.
He clapped, "Now, everyone here still wants to deal with the Hydras right?' he asked carefully. They all nodded. "And we are willing to go the distance for battle, servants and gold right? They all nodded again, this time with questioning looks.
He coughed and adjusted his robes. "In that case, we have to swim."
Scald raised an eyebrow, "And how is that a problem? Just cast air bubble on all of us and lets go." he said questioningly.
Valgrim looked away and said, "I can't cast air bubble again today, and even if I could with so many people here the bubbles would not be able to hold enough air to last." he coughed, turned around and held his hands behind his back.
"The only we can do is swim, which means breathing underwater, and getting...wet."
A moment of silence, then loud sounds of protest erupted from the group. Saharra and Scald did not want to dirty their outfits, which according to them was made by the greatest tailors, Saharra herself did not to lose her kelp wrap. Dirrg and Meridia complained that Girr would lose her fluffiness. Brutus didn't care, but made noises to mess with Valgrim.
"It's that or we lose valuable tracking time, this may be the only opportunity to catch them while they in small groups."
Everyone grudgingly agreed after awhile. Valgrim nodded, than took out the kelp Brutus had given him. He began muttering in prayer, his hands glowing over the kelp. "...and by your favor....Water Breathing!"
The glow from the kelp jumped and split to cover every member of the party. As this occurred, Valgrim suddenly remembered, "Ah, should have mentioned the spell disables the ability to use the air to breathe as soon as it kicks in and wears off the next time they enter the air."
On that lovely note, everyone began coughing and sputtering. Everyone immediately jumped into the lake to escape death by suffocation, and stared angrily at Valgrim. He shrugged, and Brutus knocked him into a cartwheel underwater.
"Warn next time, hmph." He said angrily.
Rubbing his head, Valgrim sent as apologetic a look as he could. "By the way, while the spell wears off when we reach air again or in 3 hours, I advise you get rid of all the water in your lungs first, otherwise you will drown."
This resulted in another slap, this time from Meridia, "...Idiot..."
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He looked at her with wounded eyes. It was the strongest spell he could cast right now, why were they not grateful? "Seriously, do they not know how difficult it is to give someone the ability the breathe underwater." he muttered.
Anyways, Brutus waved them to follow him, and they swam after him to the hole. It was quite funny to watch Girr doggie paddle under water, dragging Dirrg behind her. Dirrg could swim, apparently another dwarf stereotype that fit. He grumbled about the "bloody water" the entire swim to the hole.
It took them 30 minutes to reach the hole, where they had Brutus swim down first, followed by the rest of them, and ended with Valgrim. The tunnel did not lengthen or shrink as they walked along it, the 10 ft radius merely angled up slowly. It took them 30 minutes to swim to the hole, and they had been walking for an hour. It was at this point that Valgrim stopped the party.
"We have half our breathing time left." he said seriously, "We have to choose to either continue or go back. If we choose to go ahead and their is no end, we will drown."
Even with the cryptic warning, if they went at this point they would lose precious time. It had been darkening when they had met up at the lake, and the Hydra's would have surely moved by now. They had no choice but to keep moving forward.
Luckily, it only took another 45 minutes to reach a steep wall, which high above them showed the surface. Preparing themselves, they all swam up to just beneath the surface. Valgrim pulled out an invention of his, which he called an angle scope. The angle scope was a magic item that worked like a telescope, except it could be used to look around corners and over walls. A useful item in his young ero days, now it served a more practical purpose of scouting.
Looking through it, he saw that they were in a cave, half flooded and the other half land. the beach was filled with rocks, no wait, those were countless bones. He could see 9 adult Hydras, and many younglings. Obviously, this was a feeding cave for the young.
He conveyed what he saw to the rest of the group. Thinking quickly, Valgrim quickly came up with a plan. "Okay, before we go up, everyone exhale all the water out of your lungs. This way you won't drown on the surface. We all swim quietly to the beach, then ambush the Hydras, agreed?"
They all agreed, thinking it a decent plan from the guy who kept forgetting the important things.
Saharra thought to herself, "I wonder why Brutus puts up with this guys?"
Still, they all exhaled, and swan stealthily to the surface. Unfortunately, one of Girr's spike poked into Brutus as they broke the surface. Normally that would not have been an issue, except that particular spike had warped under Valgrim's earlier spell into an extremely sharp point, and it poked his butt.
Breaking the surface, Brutus let out a roar that erupted and echoed all around them. The Hydra's looked at them in shock.
Taking her hands off her ears, Saharra thought, "Better question, how has Valgrim not died yet.
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SpellWater BreathingA spell that temporarily switches the ability to breathe air for the ability to breathe water. The time it takes for the spell to wear off depends on the power of the caster, and is reduced by the number of recipients, which cannot exceed 10. The spell also wears off with the next exposure to air, including bubble. Not recommenced to use for underwater fighting. Also, once spell has ended, user must have expelled all water in lungs, otherwise drowning will occur.
Author note: During the game, we rolled stealth on leaving the water. Brutus rolled a 1 out of 20.